No: 119, 25 April 2018, Press Release Regarding The Statement By The U.s. President Trump On The 1915 Events

Republic Of Turkey Ministry Of Foreign Affairs 25.04.2018

We reject the inaccurate expressions and the subjective interpretation of
history in the written statement by Mr. Donald Trump, President of the USA,
released on 24 April 2018 regarding the events of 1915.

Our expectation from the US Administration is a fair assessment of a period
during which all the peoples of the Ottoman Empire suffered tremendously.

In this context, we remind President Trump that during the same period more
than 500.000 Muslims were slaughtered as a result of the events in which
Armenian insurgents took part.

Turkey continues to offer the establishment of a Joint Historical
Commission in order to shed light on this painful period of history and has
opened its archives to researchers.

On the other hand, Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives in the conditions
of World War I were commemorated this year once again on 24 April in a
ceremony held at the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul suiting the respect
they deserve and befitting the 800-year long friendship between Turks and
Armenians. We recommend the US Administration to consider the message by
our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent to the ceremony at the Patriarchate
of Istanbul on 24 April 2018 addressing the descendants of Ottoman
Armenians, which reflects Turkey’s approach to this sensitive issue.

Besides all these points, we think it is in line with common sense that the
statement made by the US President remained within international legal
norms and did not refer to baseless genocide allegations.